Hello everyone,
First thank you for reading this and you insights.
I currently am an embedded software engineer with around \~3.5 years of working experience in the automotive (AUTOSAR).
It’s clear that Japan is hard to avoid when working in that field, the company i work in already works with Japanese companies such as Nissan. The same company I’m working in also has a branch in Japan and my current boss knows some people over there. You probably see where I’m going with this.
From a professional standpoint, I believe that having worked for a few years in Japan would be very beneficial for me even when I come back home. However this is not my only motivation, I also happen to have been learning Japanese for the past 4 years and I genuinely enjoy learning the language and the culture on a personal level. I also haven’t really “lived abroad” and it is to me and opportunity to get out of my comfort zone.
I initially wanted to do the move earlier (I have old post on this sub) but I decided I wanted to work on my language skills first, (I did try JLPT N2 in December but failed with a score of 69/180 I did however worked almost everyday and I believed I’m getting closer from that N2 mark, at the very least I would consider myself N3 level).
Recently, I have been putting more research into how working there would be like as I don’t want to be unprepared. I come to the point of contention I feel like everyone gets to at some point : Working conditions, overtime, etc … From what I’ve gathered in terms of info : These are definitely issues that exists and cannot be ignored however not every company seems to be like that and careful selection of the company seems to be mandatory to have a reasonable work/life balance (I’m ok with working a bit more in Japan than my own country (I’m around 40h/week) but I’m gonna put the limit at 50h/week).
When I look around I see a lot of you in IT and Software engineers jobs, it does seems like companies are more progressive and “western” minded that the average company, however I struggle to find much information when it comes to embedded and especially automotive (It seems it isn’t as good as IT in that regards).
When it comes to pay it seems salaries are higher than my country (France) so I’m not too worried about it.
This all leads me to ask if some of you have worked in embedded systems :
\- How was it ?
\- Work/life balance ?
\- Pay ?
\- Did you manage to get enough holydays to visit your family back home at least once a year ?
\- Foreign or Japanese company ?
I want to make clear, this is not a “I want to work in Japan but not have to deal with anything Japanese” and I understand it can sound like that. I am willing to make concessions for the experience of working in Japan, but I also want to have some time to keep studying the language to be proficient and get to experience the country and it’s culture outside of work, not stay for 8am to 11pm at work.
Other issues that are often mentioned about living in Japan (being the forever foreigner, and stuff like that) I can deal with that, I know what to expect.
Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns and for sharing your thoughts, it would help me tremendously and I wish you all a great day !
1 comment
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Anyone with experience working in embedded systems ? (especially automotive and AUTOSAR ?)**
Hello everyone,
First thank you for reading this and you insights.
I currently am an embedded software engineer with around ~3.5 years of working experience in the automotive (AUTOSAR).
It’s clear that Japan is hard to avoid when working in that field, the company i work in already works with Japanese companies such as Nissan. The same company I’m working in also has a branch in Japan and my current boss knows some people over there. You probably see where I’m going with this.
From a professional standpoint, I believe that having worked for a few years in Japan would be very beneficial for me even when I come back home. However this is not my only motivation, I also happen to have been learning Japanese for the past 4 years and I genuinely enjoy learning the language and the culture on a personal level. I also haven’t really “lived abroad” and it is to me and opportunity to get out of my comfort zone.
I initially wanted to do the move earlier (I have old post on this sub) but I decided I wanted to work on my language skills first, (I did try JLPT N2 in December but failed with a score of 69/120 I did however worked almost everyday and I believed I’m getting closer from that N2 mark, at the very least I would consider myself N3 level).
Recently, I have been putting more research into how working there would be like as I don’t want to be unprepared. I come to the point of contention I feel like everyone gets to at some point : Working conditions, overtime, etc … From what I’ve gathered in terms of info : These are definitely issues that exists and cannot be ignored however not every company seems to be like that and careful selection of the company seems to be mandatory to have a reasonable work/life balance (I’m ok with working a bit more in Japan than my own country (I’m around 40h/week) but I’m gonna put the limit at 50h/week).
When I look around I see a lot of you in IT and Software engineers jobs, it does seems like companies are more progressive and “western” minded that the average company, however I struggle to find much information when it comes to embedded and especially automotive (It seems it isn’t as good as IT in that regards).
When it comes to pay it seems salaries are higher than my country (France) so I’m not too worried about it.
This all leads me to ask if some of you have worked in embedded systems :
– How was it ?
– Work/life balance ?
– Pay ?
– Did you manage to get enough holydays to visit your family back home at least once a year ?
– Foreign or Japanese company ?
I want to make clear, this is not a “I want to work and Japan but not have to deal with anything Japanese” and I understand it can sound like that. I am willing to make concessions for the experience of working in Japan, but I also want to have some time to keep studying the language to be proficient and get to experience the country and it’s culture outside of work, not stay for 8am to 11pm at work.
Other issues that are often mentioned about living in Japan (being the forever foreigner, and stuff like that) I can deal with, I know what to expect.
Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns and for sharing your thoughts, it would help me tremendously and I wish you all a great day !
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